NY- convicted arsonist and child murderer set to be paroled in May 2024. Convicted in two murders, suspect in 2 other killings.

[DS2021]

If theres a better place for this please feel free to move it

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Winters turned out to be a killer and an arsonist. She admitted in court she killed two children -- one her own. She’s also suspected of killing two of her other children in the fire in 1979. She’s suspected of setting 18 homes on fire, too.

 

[DS2021]

Heres a link that goes over a timeline of her life. Timeline: The life of Shirley Winters

1966
All three of her siblings, Peter, 11; Joyce, 10; and Lita, 4 are found dead in their beds. Marilyn Baron, their mother, survives. Investigators decide the children were asphyxiated by fumes from a gas furnace. An exhaust pipe, likely damaged by a dog, is suspected. Shirley Baron, 7, is at her grandmother's a quarter-mile away

1979
Sept. 12:

Fire in Theresa, in Jefferson County, kills two of the couple's children. Shirley says the children were asleep in a bedroom, while she watched television in the living room. Her husband is at work. The investigation points to a piece of hot kindling left near the wood stove.

The day before the fire, three other children died in another house fire 50 miles away. The victims' mother was a friend of Shirley Winters. After the fire, Ronald and Shirley Winters separate.

 

[DS2021]

These are the 2 killings she was convicted of

Convicted child killer Shirley Winters set for release in May after 17 years

The Otisco woman who killed two children, one of them her own son, is set to be released in May after just 17 years in prison.Shirley Winters, now 66, has been

www.google.com

In 2006, Winters drowned Ryan, who was almost 2 years old, in a bathtub while she was staying at his grandparent's house in St. Lawrence County. His murder caused investigators to reexamine the deaths of three of Winters' children.

In 2008, Winters admitted to smothering her 5-month-old son Ronald in their Otisco home in 1980. Ronald's death was first ruled as sudden infant death syndrome, commonly known as SIDS.

 

[DS2021]

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2024/03/19/woman-convicted-in-child-deaths-to-be-released--da-says-

She pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2008 in the death of a 2-year-old who drowned in a bathtub at a home where Winters was staying. That led to her admitting that she caused the 1980 death of her son, Ronald Winters III; but also exhumations and autopsies that showed two of her own children, Colleen and Johnny, who had been found dead after a 1979 fire in Jefferson County, suffered blunt trauma to the head before the fire.

 

[Eli9]

I've read in the links provide above that SW wasn't consistent with her medication intake. Since being incarcerated I'm sure her meds are mandated thus she has good behavior. Too bad there aren't transitional settings where an individual can gradually prove that they are willing and capable of taking care of their mental health. Going from supervised care to nothing isn't going to end well for most people.

 

[DS2021]

Shes NOT a suspect in the 3 deaths that occurred in the house fire that occurred the day before her own house was burned down and her 2 kids were murdered.

11 fires in 11 years of her life

The following column by Dick Case was first published in the Syracuse Herald American on Sunday, November 25, 1990. The files on Shirley Winters are beginning to make a pile. I watched Paul Johnson fill a table with files in...

www.syracuse.com

The day before the Winters youngsters died, three other children perished in another house fire 50 miles to the north and east of Hyde Lake. The remote house of Pam and Leo Gotham in Russell was destroyed and three Gotham children -- Richard, 13; Patty, 9 and Xann Mae, 5 -- were killed.

Pam Gotham, their mother, was a friend of Shirley Baron. She used to baby-sit for the Barons in Syracuse before she married and moved to the North Country in 1971.

Sheriff Keith Knowlton of St. Lawrence County answered the fire call at the Gothams in 1979. His investigation pointed to a piece of hot kindling left near the wood stove as the cause. When he recently learned about the Winters connection, he reopened his closed case.

The Gothams, who live in DeKalb Junction, were interviewed. Mrs. Gotham said Shirley had visited her at the house in Russell, usually while she stayed at Hyde Lake. No, she hadn't been there before the fire. Indeed, the Gothams said they didn't think it odd their friend's children died the day after theirs.

She's had a hard life and bad luck, they explained. She'd never set any fires.

``We don't see any connection between the two fires,'' Paul Johnson said.

 

[caradana]

Prosecutor is right: she enjoys this. That’s an inborn trait, in my eyes. She can’t be near prospective victims. She might be OK if she isn’t … she will capitalize if she is.

 

[DS2021]

This article dives into the psychological aspect of this case, and dives into some very interesting theories about how her child trauma may have manifested in her pyromania.

Inside the Mind of Shirley Winters

A child killer and fire starter spent a lifetime with the voices.

www.syracuse.com

The records list a catalog of psychological ills. Among them: dissociative disorder, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, psychogenic amnesia and pyromania.

 

[grannygates]

Shes NOT a suspect in the 3 deaths that occurred in the house fire that occurred the day before her own house was burned down and her 2 kids were murdered.

11 fires in 11 years of her life

The following column by Dick Case was first published in the Syracuse Herald American on Sunday, November 25, 1990. The files on Shirley Winters are beginning to make a pile. I watched Paul Johnson fill a table with files in...

www.syracuse.com

Both the fire at her house and her friends house were caused by a piece of kindling being left by a wood stove ? Isn’t that a bit coincidental ?

 

[DS2021]

Quote from her daughter, who,at the age of 5, was left behind in a burning home, while her mother carried her two younger siblings out

Shirley Winters’ daughter fears her mother’s early release in May

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – She’s been in prison for 17 years for smothering her five-month-old son at their home in Otisco and drowning a two-year-old boy in a bathtub in St. Lawrence County.…

www.localsyr.com

“There is absolutely no way a serial arsonist and serial child murderer should be able to earn good time in prison because, of course, she’s good in jail. It’s her perfect environment. She has medicine, it’s controlled, she has care, and her favorite victims aren’t present,” Joy Winters said.

 

[DS2021]

Both the fire at her house and her friends house were caused by a piece of kindling being left by a wood stove ? Isn’t that a bit coincidental ?

Extremely odd

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

I've read in the links provide above that SW wasn't consistent with her medication intake. Since being incarcerated I'm sure her meds are mandated thus she has good behavior. Too bad there aren't transitional settings where an individual can gradually prove that they are willing and capable of taking care of their mental health. Going from supervised care to nothing isn't going to end well for most people.

There is no medication that cures killers like this.

 

[LadyL]

wow what a sicko
really frightening

 

[shetalksinstereo]

People are very concerned here about her release. I know that I wouldn't want to rent to her!

After early prison release, child killer, arsonist could settle in north country

"I am absolutely terrified," says Shirley Winters' daughter, who has a warning for the north country.

www.wwnytv.com

 

[?!?]

People are very concerned here about her release. I know that I wouldn't want to rent to her!

After early prison release, child killer, arsonist could settle in north country

"I am absolutely terrified," says Shirley Winters' daughter, who has a warning for the north country.

www.wwnytv.com

From link above:

“Every single time she’s been released from that care she has gone right back to what she knows and that’s arson and murder.”

 

[DS2021]

She was released today

 

[DS2021]

Shes NOT a suspect in the 3 deaths that occurred in the house fire that occurred the day before her own house was burned down and her 2 kids were murdered.

11 fires in 11 years of her life

The following column by Dick Case was first published in the Syracuse Herald American on Sunday, November 25, 1990. The files on Shirley Winters are beginning to make a pile. I watched Paul Johnson fill a table with files in...

www.syracuse.com

After early prison release, child killer, arsonist could settle in north country

"I am absolutely terrified," says Shirley Winters' daughter, who has a warning for the north country.

www.wwnytv.com

Ron Ryan, a fire investigator with the Onondaga County Department of Emergency Management, has spent nearly 40 years looking into Shirley Winters’ history. He says her crimes appear to have started in September 1979 when Winters was linked to two fatal fires. One blaze at a friend’s home in Hermon killed three children

So I'm confused about whether she was ruled out or not

 

[DS2021]

She was released today

It's been moved to Sunday

 

[LadyL]

so when she kills again, will they keep her in prison for life then??? this is beyond ridiculous
I think I would move to another country if I were her family members

 

[Occam's Zebra]

So she's being released on Mother's Day. Cue irony.

MOO she was severely traumatized as a young kid, both with all of her siblings dying from a gas leak while she was at her grandmother's and then supposed sexual abuse (according to the article that DS2021 posted). One wonders what she would be like today if there hadn't been a gas leak that night. Doesn't excuse any of her behavior obviously.